Federal student council
In Austria , the federal student council ( BSV ), together with the regional student council (LSV) and the central school student council ( ZSV), form the regular, statutory and higher-level official student council set out in the Schülervertretungengesetz (SchVG).
The task of the BSV is to represent the interests of the pupils vis-à-vis politics at the federal level, the highest pupil representative in Austria is the federal school spokesman .
occupation
The federal school spokesperson for the 2019/20 school year is Jennifer Uzodike ( BMHS , Vienna), the area spokespersons are Valentin Frühwirth ( BS , Upper Austria), Benjamin Koiser (BMHS, Lower Austria) and Leopold Plattner ( AHS , Tyrol). Anna Radman is the spokesperson for the central teaching institutions.
Federal school spokesman
The federal school spokespersons in recent years:
- 2019/2020: Jennifer Uzodike (student union)
- 2018/2019: Timo Steyer (student union)
- 2017/2018: Harald Zierfuß (student union)
- 2016/2017: Harald Zierfuß (student union)
- 2015/2016: Maximilian Gnesda (student union)
- 2014/2015: Lukas Faymann (student union)
- 2013/2014: Angi Groß (student union)
- 2012/2013: Felix Wagner (student union)
- 2011/2012: Conny Kolmann (student union)
- 2010/2011: Philipp Pinter (student union)
- 2009/2010: Pia Bauer (student union)
- 2008/2009: Nico Marchetti (student union)
- 2007/2008: Martin Schneider (student union)
- 2006/2007: Matthias Hansy (student union)
- 2005/2006: Istvan Deli (student union)
- 2004/2005: Selma Schmid ( action by critical students )
- 2003/2004: Romana Brait (Action by Critical Students)
- 2002/2003: Claudia Haas (student union)
- 2001/2002: Jakob Huber (Action by Critical Students)
- 2000/2001: Eva Gollubits (student union)
- 1999/2000: Stefan Pfarrhofer (student union)
- 1998/1999: Stefan Friedrich (student union)
- 1997/1998: Moriz Piffl-Percevic (student union)
- 1996/1997: Peter Payer (student union)
- 1995/1996: Hannes Christian Kröpfl (student union)
- 1994/1995: Cornelia Breuß (student union)
- 1993/1994: Bernhard Ruetz (student union)
- 1992/1993: Ronny Hollenstein (student union)
- 1991/1992: Ronny Hollenstein (student union)
- 1990/1991: Martin Wolfram (Action by Critical Students)
- 1989/1990: Andrea Grüner / Daniel Jäger (student union)
- 1988/1989: Werner Amon (student union)
- 1987/1988: Natja Kajali (student union)
- 1986/1987: Gerlinde Peischl (student union)
- 1985/1986: Karl Parisot (student union)
- 1984/1985: Christoph Kothbauer (student union)
- 1983/1984: Ralf Böckle (student union)
- 1982/1983: Thomas Uher (student union)
- 1981/1982: Harald Rossegger (Action by Critical Students)
Establishment of the statutory student council in Austria
All students elect a class representative and his or her deputy. The class representatives are the basis of the student council at the school. Pupils from the 9th grade can also elect a school representative and two other deputies for the SGA ( school community committee ). In addition, three further student representatives are elected, who move up to the SGA if one of the first three people fails.
At the end of each school year, all school representatives in a federal state elect the regional student council (LSV) for the next school year for each school type area: general secondary schools (AHS), vocational middle and high schools (BMHS), vocational schools (BS) . Each LSV has three state school representatives , one person for each area. The LSV is the legal representation of the interests of students in a federal state vis-à-vis the state school board (LSR, city school board in Vienna), other authorities and the state parliament .
The state school spokesmen of Austria also form the Austrian federal student council. In addition to the 27 state school spokesmen, there are two (until the dissolution of the HIB, the federal higher boarding schools, three) representatives from the area of the central teaching institutions (ZLA), these are schools that are directly subordinate to the BM: UKK. Together, at the beginning of each school year, they elect a federal school spokesperson and three deputies (area spokesperson) for the respective school types (AHS / BMHS / BS).
Development of the legal student representation in Austria
Austria is one of the few countries in which there is a legally stipulated student body at all administrative levels and in this respect is considered a great example for many other countries. The idea of school partnership cooperation is also unique ; In no other country are the rights of school partners as far-reaching and precisely defined as in Austria. But it was a long way to get there.
The structure of the school and the whole school system in general was not constitutionally regulated in Austria until 1962 , but internal school operations were also excluded from this regulation . In the second half of the 1960s, the youth movements of the time began to demand participation in schools and universities , but remained unheard. In 1967, Minister of Education Piffl-Perčević was the first to attempt to submit a draft for a School Education Act (SchUG) , but his resignation a short time later due to the referendum to suspend the 9th grade for higher schools, this idea was quickly put on the back burner . The second draft for a SchUG brought in by Piffl-Perčević's successor Alois Mock was also rejected. However, a broad educational discussion began at this time, and a school reform commission was even set up.
Many schoolchildren vented their displeasure with the situation on May 31, 1968: There were large demonstrations on the Ringstrasse, as a result of which youth and schoolchildren organizations increasingly interfered in the discussion on educational policy . From this point on, two representatives of the Austrian Federal Youth Association (ÖBJR) were also allowed to work on the school reform commission. As part of the first report of this commission in 1969, a school concept of the Mittelschüler-Kartell-Verband (MKV) was presented as a contribution from the pupils' side . The greatest demand in this: the Ministry of Education should set up its own student advisory board , similar to the existing parent advisory board . The MKV also put forward this demand at the youth queues of the federal government on May 27, 1970; Federal Chancellor Bruno Kreisky agreed.
On January 19, 1972, Minister of Education Fred Sinowatz convened the new Federal Student Council (BSB) for the first time . It consisted of one representative each from the general secondary schools (AHS) and from the vocational secondary schools (BHS) per federal state, as well as eight representatives from youth organizations and one representative from the vocational compulsory schools . The student representatives from the individual federal states were determined by lot. At this first meeting, the student representatives demanded a draft for a Student Representation Act (SchVG) , which above all includes the right to self-convene for the BSB, its exact competencies, a representation of the students in the colleges of the state school councils or the city school council for Vienna and a facility for the student councils in should include all federal states. In addition, the representatives from the individual countries should be determined through an election among the school representatives. Education Minister Sinowatz, however, above all rejected a separate legal personality , the right to convene and the legal anchoring of the BSB. At the same time, supra-regional associations of school-student representatives were formed in some federal states. These informal bodies held school representative meetings, seminars and other events in their federal states.
In 1972 the Ministry of Education passed guidelines for the establishment of regional student councils (LSB) as recommendations to the regional school councils. In these guidelines, the LSB was noted as an advisory body of the state school board, which had the right to submit inquiries and applications and to submit comments on drafts. In the LSB, the same number of representatives from the AHS, BMHS and vocational compulsory schools or polytechnic courses should be elected by the school representatives in their area. Representatives of the youth organizations could also be invited to the meetings of the LSB. As a result of this recommendation, LSBs were set up in roughly the manner proposed in all federal states.
The BSB, which now consisted of the elected state school spokespersons and the representatives of the youth organizations, agreed that legal provisions and clear say-so competencies for the student representatives should finally be laid down at the state and federal level. In 1973, for example, the Minister of Education received another proposal for a SchVG on the grounds that the current regulation was insufficient. The student representatives demanded that the BSB be placed on the legal basis of a corporation under public law , such as the Austrian Students' Union , but this failed because the student representatives were minors .
Until 1981, the fronts for a legal safeguard of the supraregional student council remained hardened, the student councils remained essentially unchanged. Only with a third submission for a SchUG did the discussion about the rights and structure of a student council at school level arise again. In many AHS and BHS classes there were class representatives and sometimes school representatives elected by them, but without any legal legitimation. The student representatives received information about their rights and additional training from student and youth organizations. Above all, these demanded a binding stipulation of the right to have a say for students.
On February 6, 1974, after almost seven years of discussion, the SchUG was finally passed in parliament, only the FPÖ voted against it. This law also regulated the student council and school community . Despite the vehement demands of the student and youth organizations (as well as the BSB and even the teachers' union ), the SchUG only had regulations on student co-administration at the individual schools, but the hoped-for statutory regulation for supra-regional student representation did not materialize. The SchUG included the right to be heard, information, the submission of suggestions and statements, the right to participate in teacher conferences (except for points on personal matters or performance evaluation), the right to have a say in the design of lessons in the Framework of the curriculum and the right to participate in the choice of teaching materials . The co-determination rights included the right to co-decision when drawing up the house rules , when using educational resources , transferring to the parallel class or threatening to submit an application for exclusion and when applying for exclusion of a student.
It was not until December 1, 1978 that the school partners, teachers, pupils and parents, were able to agree in the school reform commission to accept the proposals made by Minister Sinowatz for a legal anchoring of the pupil council. These gave the BSB and the LSBs in the federal states the task of advising the ministry or the state school boards on student matters. In addition, only elected student representatives from the federal states should form the BSB. The new regulation displeased the MKV, who criticized that with the new regulation no representatives of the school and youth organizations would have a seat on this body. The student representatives themselves under the federal school spokesman Ortwin Kirchmayr were also dissatisfied with the regulation.
At the state and federal level, the student council was finally put on a legal basis in 1981 with the Student Representation Act , which, however, was not entirely satisfactory for the student representatives themselves. In 1987 the federal school spokeswoman and BMHS state school spokeswoman for Burgenland, Gerlinde Peischl, called for a reform of this law at the joint meeting with Education Minister Hilde Hawlicek . The BSB presented its "Brunner Resolutions", in which the student representatives a conversion of the advisory board into a corporation under public law, new organs of the student council, the renaming of the BSB in federal student council, changes of the election modes and regulations for the elections of the student council at all levels , a legally stipulated division of competencies within the federal student council and greater independence in financial matters. Under federal school spokesman Werner Amon, some of these demands were implemented in the 1988/89 school year in a reform of the SchVG; the desire for a corporation under public law and independence in financial matters remained unfulfilled.
In the 1990s, the Austrian school system changed fundamentally. The school partnership, the cooperation between teachers, students and parents, was given more and more competencies. All schools in the upper secondary level now have the option of issuing school- independent curriculum regulations within the framework of the school community committee with a two-thirds majority . In 1991, for the first time, student representatives demanded the introduction of a school partnership committee at the state level, the LSGA.
In the school year 2000/2001, not only school work, but also youth work in Austria changed fundamentally: With the new Federal Youth Representation and Federal Youth Promotion Act , the federal student council and the student body, the only elected and legally institutionalized bodies in Austria that represent young people, also involved in youth policy. This new legal regulation took away most of its competencies from the Austrian Federal Youth Council (ÖBJR) , which until then had been responsible for the distribution of federal youth grants and the external representation of Austrian youth. Its dissolution was therefore decided on February 1, 2001.
Web links
- Official website of the Austrian federal student council
Individual evidence
- ↑ SchVG, Federal Law Gazette No. 284/1990 as amended